It is a time-honored perk for college football's national champions to visit the White House and meet the president.

Almost eight months after winning the title, though, Florida State still hasn't met with President Barack Obama. Now, with the college-football season kicking off this week—Florida State opens against Oklahoma State in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday—the Seminoles may become the first nonrepeat champion since 1990 to not make its ceremonial trip.

"The window for a team visit has likely closed altogether," a Florida State spokesman said.

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A Florida State Seminoles player holds a helmet during a game against the Maryland Terrapins in 2012.
Maryland Terrapins/Getty Images

The conversations between Florida State and White House officials started soon after the Seminoles beat Auburn on Jan. 6 to win last season's title. Later that week, the president called Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher to offer congratulations and invite the team to the White House.

It looked like the two sides would soon nail down a date. Monk Bonasorte, the school's senior associate athletic director, offered six dates in April for potential visits, according to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. White House officials said they submitted a formal request to check the president's availability by March 7.

"I know that you are all antsy to get this locked down," a White House official wrote.

"I understand the President has more pressing issues than having Florida State at the White House," Bonasorte wrote back.

On March 19, the White House said it was "still finalizing details." But the negotiations soon hit a snag. A week later, on March 26, the White House asked Florida State for new suggestions since the April dates previously submitted conflicted with the president's schedule. On one of those dates, April 18, he was in Washington and presented the Commander-in-Chief's trophy to Navy's football team for beating Army and Air Force last season. Navy administrators say that date was set on March 25, which is the day before the White House asked Florida State for more dates.

Bonasorte was advised to suggest dates in May and June. He offered six potential dates in late May and early June. But the president wasn't available.

"Are there dates later in the month of June that would work for the team?" the White House official wrote. "Hopefully third time's the charm on this one!"

The two sides communicated over the summer but never finalized a plan, Bonasorte said. They are still working on a date, a White House official said Tuesday. "We were disappointed and I'm sure the White House was too, but we weren't disappointed in the effort or the lack of it from either side," Bonasorte said.

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Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston against Florida in November.
Reuters

Only one college-football champion since 1995 missed out on a White House trip. That team, Southern California in 2004, had visited the year before. Almost all of the champions visited by the middle of June. The latest that any Bowl Championship Series champion visited was the 1998 Tennessee team on Aug. 17, 1999.

Every champion of the other major team sports—the NBA, NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball and men's college basketball—has seen President Obama since he took office in 2009. Connecticut's champion men's and women's college-basketball teams went in June after winning their titles in April. The most recent champions, the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Kings, are working with the White House to schedule dates, team spokesmen said.

Pro-sports champions have visited the White House on their road trips to Washington the season after winning. But coordinating a visit for Florida State during the season would be "very, very difficult," a school spokesman said, with the Seminoles having two nongame weeks until December and some of its key players from last year's team now in the NFL.

Last year was also tumultuous for Florida State. During the 2013 season, a Florida prosecutor cited insufficient evidence in deciding not to pursue criminal charges against star quarterback Jameis Winston, who had been accused of sexually assaulting another student in December 2012. His attorney has denied the allegation and said the sex was consensual. Winston said afterward: "I knew that I did nothing wrong and everything would be OK."

On April 3, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights opened a probe to investigate whether Florida State's handling of the allegations against Winston violated Title IX, the gender-equity law that prohibits schools receiving federal funds from discriminating on the basis of sex. The government agency received a complaint from the alleged victim on March 6, according to a Department of Education letter reviewed by the Journal. Florida State is one of 76 schools being investigated amid a push from the Obama administration to stop sexual assaults on campus.

Weeks after the state's attorney's decision not to prosecute Winston, he won a cluster of the sport's most prestigious awards, including the Heisman Trophy. But he and Florida State ran into other troubles since last season.

Winston was cited in the spring and briefly suspended from the school's baseball team for walking out of a Publix supermarket without paying for about $30 worth of crab legs and crawfish. His punishment was part of an adult civil citation program for first-time offenders. He said at the time he forgot to pay for the food and later apologized for what he called a "terrible mistake."

Winston's troubles were raised during a marketing campaign this month when Florida State's athletic department asked fans to submit questions for Winston through social media. The episode turned into a public-relations embarrassment as the school's feed was inundated with negative comments about Winston's off-the-field issues.

But Florida State shows no signs of ceding the sport's spotlight despite the off-season tumult. Ranked No. 1 in the preseason, the Seminoles are widely expected to make the sport's first-ever four-team playoff this season.

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